Glen Ellen's fire chief on Tuesday hotly refuted concerns that his department put the safety of a 16-year-old boy at risk during the battle to douse a raging New Year's Eve house fire.
"I can tell you categorically that this appears to be overblown," said Peter Van Fleet, who took over as chief in June 2008 and was a volunteer for the department for 25 years.
Van Fleet returned from vacation Tuesday to be greeted by a firestorm of controversy over the role the minor, identified as Japen Soto-Pomeroy, played during the response to the blaze, which tore through an unoccupied vacation home on Trinity Road east of Glen Ellen.
Sonoma County fire officials, who had jurisdiction over the fire scene, raised concerns about the teen's work after he and a Glen Ellen firefighter were taken to Sonoma Valley Hospital to be treated for heat exhaustion.
But after speaking with his firefighters who were at the scene that day, Van Fleet said Tuesday that neither their actions nor that of the teen violated the department's policy for fire cadets, which the chief said he drafted last May.
The policy forbids cadets - defined as trainees 16 and over - from going inside a building where there is an uncontrolled fire. But they can go onto roofs to help with "ventilation, exposure protection and overhaul" so long as they are accompanied by two other adult firefighters.
At the height of the Trinity Road blaze, Van Fleet said Soto-Pomeroy was stationed at the "corner" of the building feeding hose to firefighters, and not in a doorway as was relayed to county officials.
The chief said that a fire captain he declined to identify allowed the teen inside the house after the fire was under control to "squirt water" on hot spots.
He said the boy was also on the roof, accompanied by other personnel, for only a few minutes and that they did not do any ventilation work at that time.
"There's always some level of risk on a fire scene and there's risk if you climb on a roof. But it's what we do," Van Fleet said. "It's entirely within our scope of operations and also for our cadet."
The chief also took issue with descriptions of the teen as suffering an injury during the blaze, saying that neither he nor the firefighter wanted to go to the hospital.
"I suspect had they drank some water and stayed there for five minutes they would have been fine," Van Fleet said.
Van Fleet had a short conversation Tuesday with Mark Aston, the fire chief and director of the Sonoma County Office of Emergency Services who originally aired concerns about the use of the teen.
In an interview, Aston stuck by his assertion that the teen was injured at the blaze, saying that the boy's symptoms of heat exhaustion included throwing up. He said paramedics at the scene had no choice but to take the teen to the hospital because as a minor only his parents can refuse medical treatment for him.
Aston said he doesn't have an issue with Glen Ellen's fire cadet policy, saying it is up to individual fire agencies to set their own rules.
But he made it clear that Glen Ellen cadets will not be allowed to conduct themselves as Soto-Pomeroy did at the Trinity Road blaze at emergencies in the county's jurisdiction where Glen Ellen is present as part of a mutual aid response.
He characterized the acts of pulling hose into a burning structure and going onto a roof as offensive fire tactics, which he said are forbidden for those under 18 under county rules for safety and liability reasons. Instead, minors are limited to support functions.
He also disputes whether the fire was under control when the team went in the house.
"If that's what they want to do in Glen Ellen, that's fine. That's up to them," Aston said. "There are issues we will continue to work on between our two departments."
Both Van Fleet and Aston lamented how the controversy has overshadowed the fine work they say firefighters did at the Trinity Road blaze, which may have been caused by faulty wiring in a kitchen appliance.
"It's very disappointing that in the newspaper I never saw a single mention of the fact that we saved that damn house," Van Fleet said. "We put the fire out. That's very discouraging for people who rely on volunteers."
The board of directors who oversee the Glen Ellen Fire Protection District on Tuesday announced that they will launch a separate investigation into the incident, according to chairman Bob Norrbom.
"We need to interview everybody and find out what happened. We don't put 16-year-olds in bad situations. That's just common sense," Norrbom said.
Glen Ellen's cadet rules were drafted specifically with Soto-Pomeroy in mind after he expressed an interest in serving in that role, according to Van Fleet.
The teen's uncle is a longtime volunteer for the department, as was the boy's father for a period of time. His grandmother's house is across the street from the Arnold Drive station.
"He knew more about the fire department when he was five years old than most volunteers did," former chief Bill Murray said. "He used to come over and talk all the time. He was a red-hot fireman when he was a little kid."
Soto-Pomeroy also completed the Boy Scout Fire Explorer Program operated by the Kenwood Fire Department. At Glen Ellen, he was issued full firefighting gear and a pager so that he can be alerted to calls.
Nevertheless, Murray said he would be careful about using a minor at the scene of a working fire, saying that it could lead to a "very serious situation."
He said he will ask to be a member of the committee Norrbom is creating to look into the incident.
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